This post covers some of the common questions that repeat regularly on these forums...

I tried to post the name/URL of an email provider, but it was replaced by ***** - what's happening?
There are a few (a very few) email providers that are prohibited from being discussed on these Forums. They have been banned because they spammed the Forums and/or abused them in some other way. We're talking about a very small number of providers, by the way - much less than 10!

If you see that your post has been automatically modified into **** then the correct response is to STOP trying right there. Don't try and circumvent the ban on posting about that particular service.

Why do posts occasionally contain ***** instead of words?
Words in posts may be automatically changed into ***** in 2 cases:
A) if they contain vulgarity. Vulgarity is strongly frowned upon and can be a reason for a user being thrown off the forums.
B) if they are discussing a banned service [see previous FAQ question, above]

Q: What do the "titles" under each user's name mean?
They're just a fun/quick way of showing how many posts each user has made. The titles are generated automatically by the Forum software, based on the following:-

Note that posts to the Off-Topic Forum are not counted and will not influence these titles. Note also that posts specifically for the purpose of increasing post-counts are frowned upon.

Moderators and the Administrator (i.e. me) do not fall under the above title system - they will always be identified clearly as Moderator/Administrator respectively.

Q: What does the envelope graphic with a black dot in it mean? I see it next to some threads...
The black dot is a visual indicator to remind you that you have posted at least once to that thread. The envelope itself can be yellow (some unread messages in the thread) or grey (no unread messages in the thread)

Q: How can I mark all the posts in a Forum as "read"?
Underneath the "new thread" button in each Forum (top right of the page when you're looking at a particular forum) there's a link: "Mark this Forum Read". If you click on this link, it will mark all the posts in that particular Forum as having been read.